Speakers lay stress on use of alternative medicine – The Nation

KARACHI - Speakers at a meeting of Shura Hamdard, Karachi chapter, urged the government on Friday to promote alternative medicine to solve the public healthcare problem in the country.

The meeting was held on the theme Public healthcare and government responsibilities and it was presided over by Justice (r) Haziqul Khairi at a local hall.

Speaking on the occasion, Prof Dr Hakim Abdul Hannan, vice chancellor of the Hamdard University, said that solution to public healthcare problem was in implementation and promotion of alternative medicine, particularly Unani Medicine, which was based on herbs, plants and other halal things and could be used with confidence in Islamic countries.

Unani Medicine is comparatively cheaper. Its herbs and medicinal plants can easily be grown in the country; thus, it is economical and will save foreign exchange. It suits our weather and temperament, he said. If we heed to the promotion of Unani Medicine, we will not only be able to solve our health problems but also help other countries solve their health issues, he said.

He said it was Hamdard, which played a key role to introduce Unani Medicine in the country, regulate its medicines and standardise its education. It took the Unani Medicine degree to the level of higher education and many students did MPhil and PhD at the Faculty of Eastern Medicine at Hamdard University.

He said that a hospital of Eastern Medicine set up by Hamdard University was providing free health services to the people of areas where no health services were available.

A seed, QUINOA, brought from a country of Latin America, is being cultivated at the botanical garden of Hamdard University. It is like rice in taste and has the size of millet (bajra). It is a good substitute for rice, can be grown in saltish water and is useful for diabetic patients, Prof Hakim Hannan informed.

Journalist Zubaida Mustafa said that healthcare was a fundamental human right, even WHO stressed on every country to give this right to its citizen but in our country access to health care was a big issue. A big and costly hospital was useless for the poor, she said, adding that in a country where less than 0.25 per cent of GDP was being spent on healthcare creation of such situation was obvious. There was one nurse on four doctors in our country and the main purpose of doctors now was to make money, she said.

Sadia Rashid, president of Hamdard Foundation Pakistan, said that councils of Unanani Medicine and Homeopathy had already been formed and working in the country with enough budget. Justice (r) Zia Pervez, Col (r) Mukhtar Ahmed Butt, Zafar Iqbal, Naushaba Khalil, Prof Muhammad Rafi, Com (r) Sadeed Anwar Malik, Dr Abubakar Sheikh, Usman Damohi, Khalid Ikramullah Khan and Prof Dr Akhtar Saeed Siddiqui also spoke.